Joyeux Noel!
Nollaig shona daoibh!
Merry Christmas!

Upon reading this (courtesy of my surrogate big brother and part time viking Brian), I thought I might want to tell the story of flying from Ontario International Airport to LAX. (It was a 15 minute flight and a waste of gas. There is a reason why United is going bankrupt.)

After spending a few days with my in-laws, I was flying up to San Jose ahead of my then-fiancé Jon to work on some wedding prep with my mom. We got to the Ontario airport about 90 minutes before my flight (which was almost too late) and when I went to the ticket counter, they informed me that I was going to be the one to have my suitcase randomly checked. This alarmed me somewhat because I had the following in my suitcase:
-2 vaccuum-sealed packages of Turkish coffee with the writing being about 75% Arabic and 25% French. (It was from a Lebanese shop.)
-my hijab from the Islam class I’d taken with the pins in place for easy fastening
-a few copies of the Qur’an
-some Arabic picture books that they gave us at one of the mosques
-a few other books from my Islam class

This is of course post-9/11 and I was mentally trying to figure out how to explain all of it since saying “I am a seminary student” could easily be misinterpreted. Thankfully my screener was from a Muslim country in Africa and had a sense of humor, teasing me about all of it as he was going through my suitcase. (“Ohhh… is this Turkish coffee any good?” “Nope… haven’t tried it but it smells weird.” “You know… you can get a better version of the Qur’an than this.” “Yeah… but my Arabic isn’t that great.” “If you’re a seminary student, shouldn’t you be a nun?” “NOOOOOO!!!!! I’m Lutheran.”)

When I got upstairs, the metal detector went off and they wanded me and put my shoes through the machine. (Oooooooh… steel-toed hiking boots from Lands’ End…) Then, they informed me that they would have to wand me, pat me down, and search my carry-on bags at the gate. When I got to the gate, my checker was the one-armed gate agent who had checked me in. Getting patted down by him was an interesting experience though I would have preferred a woman do it. (It’s kind of strange to feel someone’s stump [in place of an arm and hand] patting down your chest.) I got on my nice little 15 minute flight to LAX and had an easy time once I got there.

Bri’s Wedding
Congratulations to Brianna and Michael on their wedding today! May God bless their marriage richly!
It feels like only yesterday that I was begging Bri for details about her first date with Mike. ::sniffs:: My little hostee is growing up…

My First Blogger Meetup
Ellen (of Stranger in a Strange Land) and Jon and I got together in Columbus today. We drank caffeinated beverages (Ellen: mocha Jen: COKE Jon:Sprite) and talked about things related to Bosnia, travel, seminary, Anglicanism, and other things. Surprisingly, U2 did not come up! We then went to Chipotle for lunch as it is a craving that Ellen and I share. She brought me a džezva and some chocolate (a VERY good thing) for winning the contest on her page. We amused ourselves for a little while trying to read the various languages on the chocolate package. Between us we had: Bosnian (Ellen), Slovak (Jon), French (me), Croatian (Ellen), German (Jon), and English (all of us). (OK… so it was minor but I found that utterly amusing.) I wished we could have met for longer but Jon and I had to get back up to Newark so Jon could help with worship and I could take the MBTE II and Enneagram.

Linguistic Survey
Some students at Harvard are doing a really interesting linguistic survey and I recommend reading the article on it. If you want to contribute to the findings, the link for the survey is at the bottom of the page with the article.

Job Positives
-I only have to deal with my head cashier for a total of 8 hours this week (2 on Monday and 6 on Tuesday).
-I have an interview with the library on Monday night.
-I should (God willing!) be paid on Monday.

I got word today from Margaret (my choir director at ECA) that Ann Redman, the wife of Nolan (the pastor who married Jon and I and was at ECA from 1986 until this last summer), died last night. She was terminally ill with cancer and decided to forgo chemo because it just wasn’t going to help her. She made the decision about 2 weeks ago with Nolan and all of her children present and I think her decision was really a good one. Chemo really takes everything from you and dying in a hospital bed connected to machines and life support apparatus is not how I want to die. She was able to die with her family there. I was really praying that she’d hang on for another 7 days because the 26th is their wedding anniversary but… God did not will that to be.

Please pray for Nolan and their family and please pray for ECA as I KNOW that they are mourning the loss of the one who helped to hold things together for 16 years.